Her Turn
by ploctopus
Summary: She waited and looked for him for two years, but she has finally reached her breaking point. AU :: SasuSaku & Anti-SasuSaku


Disclaimer: I don't own rights to these characters. The story-line to the Naruto manga is not mine either.

**Her Turn**

Her keys dropped to the floor, making such a clatter that she had to grit her teeth to avoid crying out from the pain that it evoked within her migraine-ridden head. She turned around to bolt the door shut -- moving slowly so as not to allow another jar to fly through her head -- before bending over to pick them off the worn linoleum.

She tiredly walked over to the threadbare, brown love-seat and narrowly avoided the corner of the water-stained and chipped coffee table in front of it as she crumpled onto its welcomed comfort. She allowed a sigh to escape her chapped lips. She still hadn't found him.

Sakura's green eyes opened to the world, only to be met with blank ceiling. After Sasuke had left two years ago, she hadn't stopped searching for him. She would never admit that he was, more likely than not, well away from Tokyo by now. He had left Naruto and her, claiming to be searching for his brother in order to avenge his family. But she knew the truth.

He had killed his brother some six months previous to his departure. The police found the body in the alley behind the old Uchiha factory. The night before, Sasuke had been out until four in the morning -- she knew because she waited up for hours, anticipating his return. When she asked him where the hell he had been, he simply responded with an insane story about how he finally found the bastard, and that his family's deaths were finally compensated for. She only believed him after the story appeared on the news. In her heart she knew that he wouldn't be caught, but those following months were torture all the same. She never knew if he would come back to their apartment when he disappeared for long nights at the bar. All she could do was stare at the television, glassy eyed, until he came home at some ungodly hour. Then she would rouse an argument so frenzied that the landlady would hammer wildly on their door and demand that they "keep the damn noise down!" Sasuke would tell her to mind her own business and tumble drunkenly to the bedroom. Sakura grew to know the feeling of sleeping on the couch and making wonderful solutions to hangovers. Not that he ever wanted them.

She screwed up her eyes, the deep eyelashes twisting against the tinted circles that marred her porcelain skin. She knew that he wasn't searching for his brother. He was using any excuse he could to leave Japan. He knew English well enough, and now he was probably somewhere in California or New York, luring an innocent girl into a destructive relationship that would tear her apart from the inside.

She felt a traitorous tear fall down her face and nestle chillingly into the conch of her ear. She shivered and shook it away. She wasn't supposed to be sad. She was left by the man whom she thought loved her. Naruto and Kakashi -- who stopped searching for him almost a year ago -- kept telling her that he didn't deserve her. They were right. All she had ever been was damn good to him, and he repayed her by leaving her with hardly any money and an apartment that felt empty with only one person inside of it.

Sakura felt anger boil under her skin. How dare he. All she had ever done she had done for him. She was only ever faithful, even after she found out about the whore he saw at the bar every night. She offered to talk every problem out, tried therapy and dinner-dates; anything she could think of, she tried. But he always pushed her away, not thinking of her sacrifices.

She furiously pulled herself up into a sitting position, staring at the worn beige carpet with as much malice as she could.

"_I can't stay here, not when I know that my brother's still out there."_

She shook her head so that pink tresses flew wildly about her shoulders and face. "I won't let nonexistent sentimentality control me, not anymore," she whispered vehemently.

"_But he's dead Sasuke; can't you see that?" she bellowed, walking up to him so that she was mere inches from his face._

_He turned away from her and yanked his leather jacket off the hooks that used to be screwed into the wall. As he walked towards the door he dug his hands into the pockets, and she heard the jingle of his keys._

"_No!" Sakura shrieked hysterically, and she got a distinct pleasure when a jolt ran up his frame._

_Sasuke turned slowly, deliberately, as if he was trying not to frighten her. She gazed frantically into deep, black eyes, trying to search for answers that weren't there. He walked measuredly up to where she stood,hair wild and breathing erratic. His hands rested solidly on her shoulders, an attempt to console her._

"_I'm only doing this in order to keep you safe, Sakura," he murmured, keeping his gaze fixated on her face. "As long as he lives, you are still in danger, Don't forget that he still wants me dead." He wrapped his arms around her unsteady frame, pulling her into a stiff hug. Sakura felt her eyes well up slightly with tears, unable to stop them from flowing freely down her face. She knew he was lying; he had been in the same half-crazed mood when he came home from murdering his brother. One of the instances had been a fabrication. Perhaps both. One thing she knew for certain, he would not be looking for his brother, no matter whether he still thought Itachi to be dead or not._

_He pulled away from her for the final time. He walked briskly to the door, but hesitated as he let his hand descend on the handle. He turned uncertainly to stare back at the grief shaken girl. "I'll return. I promise."_

_Her heart broke._

_He would never keep that promise._

She trembled slightly. The memory stoking the already blazing fires of her indignant rage.

"I hate him," she whispered softly, but as her fury grew, so did her voice. She began repeating it over and over until she was howling so harshly that her vocal chords felt as if they were being raked across knives. She picked up a vase from the coffee table and hurled it at the wall. She watched it shatter and fall to the ground. The water soaked into the carpet, and the flowers lay, forlorn and battered, among the rubble. She let the tears leap violently down her face, the torrents unstoppable to her weary will.

When she could no longer feel her throat or cry another drop, she sunk onto the floor, head slumped forward and body heaving with emotion.

A soft voice broke the heavy silence. "So you hate me?" The voice was so filled with sadness; the sound was familiar to her hears, but it was not unchanged since the last time she had heard it. It was slightly huskier with time and filled with the knowledge of a travelled man, but she knew it nevertheless.

She turned her head sedately, as if under the influence of a strong drug. He bloodshot eyes rose to meet the eyes of Sasuke, wearing the same jacket he had left her in. Words seemed to leave her, and all she could do was get up and walk to the door.

He grabbed her shoulder. "Where are you going?" he asked, his voice breaking.

"I can't do this anymore. I'm going to live with Naruto or Kakashi until I can find my own home," Sakura stated, firmness she didn't know she possessed showing its face at last.

He seemed as if he had been punched in the gut. "But I kept my promise, I came back."

"It's too late," she muttered. "You had your chance; you had your chance for two years. But I won't be taken for granted any more." Her voice broke only once. "Goodbye, Sasuke."

It was her turn. She grabbed her keys from where she had left them on the small table by the door. As she left without another word, she ignored the jumble of emotions that welled inside of her and clogged her throat savagely. She permitted a single tear to slid down her face. "_Damned if I let him see it,_" she thought, and in some ways, there was closure in that final thought concerning her first love.

**{{A/N:** So, first story/oneshot on fanfiction. First one I've posted, anyway. Thank you so much for reading; I assure you, it's greatly appreciated. I hope I can post more in the near future.

I don't really know where this came from. I just wanted to write something, and I happened to be reading an AU Sakura story. The result: this whatever. Sorry that Sasuke was a bit OOC towards the end, but this was more of a power to Sakura fic. So that's that.

Most likely, I won't write much for Naruto, and even then, not much SasuSaku either. So if you want to read more stuff like what you just read, please leave a comment. If you didn't like it, that's okay too.**}}**


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